Just A Thought

We’ve all seen them, the banner ads, usually top-center of a web page, that suddenly quadruple in size if your mouse strays over them. It’s unnerving to say the least.

Once the thing has inflated, it blocks your view of the page’s most important info, which is almost always near top-center, sparking a frantic hunt for the “close” button. Some advertisers have moved that button away from its usual top-right location. That’ just so wrong.

And then there are other websites that launch a talking animation as an “on-load” event, meaning the user doesn’t do anything to cause the thing to start playing, it just starts on its own. Not at all cool in a workplace environment. I know, people shouldn’t be surfing the web on their employer’s time, but if they didn’t, well, you don’t want to know what the impact on web-traffic would be. Let’s just say it would be Armageddon.

So come on, people. Yes you, the advertisers. Just knock it off. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I start every day with a tour of several online news sites. Drudgereport is always the first, because the staff draws on an incredibly wide array of sources. Then I make the rounds of CNN, the Wall Street Journal, SFGate (for some local color), and finally, Fox News. Until a few months ago, there was another stop on my tour, ABC News.

In May of this year, ABCNews launched a complete redesign that quickly sailed out of the harbor at full speed, searching eagerly for icebergs. It found them. Many blogs have pointed out the technical failings (for example, it doesn’t support Google’s Chrome browser), but to me those were not nearly as bad as the change in focus of coverage. The once-respected news organization morphed into a mix of US Magazine and Cosmopolitan.

Today’s edition led with a headline about former Fed Chairman Greenspan saying that unemployment would settle above 10 percent.  Buried in the story was Greenspan’s concern that health care reform will increase the federal debt, eroding that “cushion” beyond what is safe. OK, that qualifies as real “news”, but what about the rest of the page?

The box on the upper-right corner that touts the site’s “Biggest Hits” featured seven items, all somehow sex-related with the exception of a story about a pair of white lion cubs being born at the zoo in Belgrade, Serbia. The “Buzz Worthy” section has three stories; late night comedians making jokes about Letterman’s admissions of sex with subordinates at work, economic hard times leading to home haircuts and coloring (”recession hair”), and 10 places around the country where one can celebrate the 75th birthday of the Bloody Mary.

Anyone coming to this site, hungry for hard news, will be served a fluff sandwich instead.

India has seized a North Korean ship headed for Pakistan. Not covered.

President Obama’s utter failure in Copenhagen. Not covered.

The president of the World Bank says it could run out of money within 12 months. Not covered.

Needless to say ABCNews.com is now permanently off my menu.